Sponsored by Carnegie Mellon's Humanities Center and the Center for the Advancement of Applied Ethics and Political Philosophy, the lectures will focus on the diversity between affluent and economically challenged countries and their influence on one another. Central topics include climate change, global economic conditions, health, state sovereignty, human rights, the transmission and interaction of various literary and cultural traditions, and the responsibility and obligations accompanying these various connections.

All lectures will be held from 4:30-6 p.m. in Gregg Hall (Porter Hall 100) at Carnegie Mellon. The lectures are as follows:

Sept. 14: Thomas Pogge, the Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs at Yale University, will speak on "World Poverty: Explanations and Responsibilities."

Oct. 5: James Ferguson, professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology at Stanford University, will discuss "Declarations of Dependence: Labor, Personhood, and Welfare in South Africa and Beyond."

Nov. 9: Karen Piper, English professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia, will present a talk titled "Is Water 'The New Oil'? The New Water Monopolies and the World's Poor."

Feb. 4: Dale Jamieson, director and professor of environmental studies and philosophy, and affiliated professor of law at New York University, will speak on "The Moral and Political Challenges of Climate Changes."

March 25: Maha Abdel-Rahman, university lecturer in development studies at the Centre of International Studies at the University of Cambridge, will discuss "NGOs, Civil Society, and Human Rights in Egypt and the Middle East."

April 8: Solomon R. Benatar, emeritus professor of medicine and director of the Bioethics Centre at the University of Cape Town, and professor at the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health, will discuss "Global Health and the Global Economic Crisis."

The Humanities Center at Carnegie Mellon supports and encourages study, research and interest in the humanities, the disciplines that study human culture and its products. The center sponsors lectures, colloquia, panel discussions and other events designed to promote understanding and knowledge of the humanities in the campus community and is one part of the Humanities Initiative, an ambitious plan by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences to develop and expand the humanities at Carnegie Mellon. For more information on the Humanities Center and the lecture series, please visit http://www.hss.cmu.edu/humanitiescenter/.